


The Importance of Being Bilingual

by niesbixby



Category: Leviathan - Scott Westerfeld
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, First Meetings, Meet-Cute, Tumblr Prompt, a bit - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-22
Updated: 2015-04-05
Packaged: 2018-03-19 02:34:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3593115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niesbixby/pseuds/niesbixby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Deryn Sharp regrets many things. Losing track of her brother in the middle of giant barking palace is one of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt was "Please for the love of god help you're the only one here who speaks english" and well, I kind of ran with it. Sorry bout that.

In retrospect, maybe going to Austria without someone who spoke the language had been a mistake. But it all would have been completely and totally fine if she kept track of her older brother, Jaspert. 

Not like that had happened. Definitely not. 

Deryn Sharp was the kind of person who liked to consider herself as prepared for every situation life threw at her. She attributed that to a combination of preparation, keeping her barking wits, and what Jaspert liked to call “a little derring do.”

Her preparation, wit, and derring do had not prepared her for losing her older brother in the Hofburg Palace, which of course was packed with a plethora of people of all size, shape, and color, none of whom appeared to speak english. But Deryn was confident she could get out of this barking mess.

Most likely.

She stood on her tiptoes, attempting to see her brother above the crowd, but to no avail. Jaspert appeared to have vanished from the building. 

Which, now that she thought about it, was almost more of a problem than not being able to find him. If he left without her, she probably wouldn't be able to find the hotel they were staying at on her own. She dug in her pocket for her phone and pulled it out. “Blisters,” she groaned. It was dead. Why hadn't she listened when Jaspert had told her to charge the thing?

Deryn brushed a strand of short, blond hair out of her eyes and sighed deeply. Well, now what was she going to do? She couldn’t stay here forever. The palace would be closing in about an hour, and if she didn’t find her brother, she wouldn’t have anywhere to go that night. And who knew what would happen to her if she stayed on the streets all night?

She scanned the crowd again, listening for anyone who was speaking in English. Deryn listened as hard as she could, but she couldn’t hear anyone at all. 

So she decided to go with the more direct approach. Deryn walked up to the nearest person, an old woman wearing a scarf over her bushy hair. “Um, can you help me?” she asked.

The old woman stared at her blankly before saying something in another language that sounded like a scolding. “Sorry,” Deryn muttered, then tried the next person, a middle aged man. She received pretty much the same response from everyone she asked, a blank stare followed by unintelligible chatter.

After twenty minutes of searching, her notoriously short temper was beginning to wear thin. Deryn stood in the exact center of the main ballroom, staring over the crowd, asking at the top of her lungs for anyone who spoke English in utter desperation.

Someone tapped her shoulder, and she whipped around. It was a boy about her own age, a few inches shorter than her, with dark auburn hair and a sprinkling of freckles. “Um, yes?” he said in a lightly accented voice.

“Please, for the love of god, help, you’re the only one here who speaks English,” she blurted out.

The boy’s eyes widened. “Okay,” he said, holding up his hands in a pacifying gesture. “I’m Alek, and what’s your name?”

It was at that moment Deryn felt her stomach flutter, but she stuffed the feeling down. This was no time to be going moony over some Austrian boy she’d just met. “D-deryn,” she stuttered.

“And what seems to be the matter?”

Deryn shifted her feet. “Well, um, I was here with my brother, and then I lost him, and I don’t know if he’s still because I can’t find him and I can’t call him because my phone’s barking died and no one in this building speaks English.” She took a deep breath. “Sorry.”

Alek nodded. “Not a problem. I have my phone on me, so you can give him a call, if you’d like.” He dug through his pockets and produced a battered slide phone, which he handed to her.

“Thank you so much,” she said. “This doesn’t really happen all that often to me.” Deryn took the phone and dialed Jaspert’s number. He picked up on the first ring.

“Deryn? Is that you?” he demanded.

“Jaspert! I lost you in the crowd and then I couldn’t find anyone who spoke English and my phone was dead and so I had to borrow one from this boy.”

“Where are you?” Jaspert said, his voice ringing through the speaker. Deryn winced, and Alek held out his hand for the phone. She handed it to him wordlessly, and he pressed it to the side of his head.

“Hello? Sir? This is Aleksander Hohenburg. I’m with Deryn right now.” He paused and waited while Jaspert spoke. “Yes,” he said. “Yes, certainly. We’ll be on our way right now. All right, thank you.” He slid the phone shut and looked up at her. “Your brother wants to meet us by the main entrance, and he wanted me to take you there.” Alek paused. “He was quite specific, actually. Threatened something about having my guts for garters if I left you alone for a moment.”

Deryn groaned. “Sorry about him. He’s a little protective.”

Alek shook his head. “No, no. He’s quite a colorful fellow.” He held out his arm for Deryn, who took it. “Shall we?”

***

They saw Jaspert leaning on a wall next to the entrance, scowling at various passerby. Deryn tried to quench a nervous giggle. How could this get more uncomfortable? Her overprotective brother, herself, and the cute foreign boy who’d kept her from staying on the street all night.

This could be bad.

Jaspert straightened and inspected her as they approached, looking for any bruises, she thought. His gaze switched to Alek, and Deryn winced. Jaspert stepped forwards and shook Alek’s hand.

“Jaspert Sharp,” he said. “We spoke on the phone.”

Alek nodded. “Yes, we did. You made some interesting comments about what might happen to my intestines.” Deryn’s lips twisted into a grimace. Oh, this was going badly.

“Right,” she interjected. “Well, he brought me back, and I’m fine, so there will be no intestine stockings, thank you very much.” They both stared at her. 

“What?” Deryn said.

Jaspert rolled his eyes. “Right. We should be off, then. Wouldn’t want to take up any more of Mr. Hohenburg’s time.”

“Oh, no,” Alek said. “It was my pleasure to be of assistance.” He smiled at Deryn, and the bottom dropped out of her stomach. Oh no, she thought fiercely. You stop that right now. “Perhaps I should give you my cell number, though? In case you get lost again. Vienna can be a very dangerous city if one doesn’t know where they are going.”

Deryn looked up at Jaspert, who sighed. “Fine, fine. Get the boy’s phone number.”

Alek pulled a sharpie out of his pocket (honestly, what else did he keep in there? Calculators?) and took her hand with cool fingers, tracing the digits onto her skin. Deryn shivered. “There,” he said. “and don’t forget to charge your phone.”

Deryn could only stare. As he walked away, Jaspert elbowed her. “So,” he said, “He was a nice looking young man.”

Deryn groaned. “Oh, shut up.”


	2. Part Two, Bitches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I have no excuse.

So apparently keeping up an international relationship was a lot easier than some people (Jaspert) might have let on. Not that it was even that kind of a relationship. Deryn wasn’t barking stupid. She knew better than to expect someting like that.

Not that her knowledge meant she couldn’t think about the possibility, though. She and Alek had started out just texting each other every so often, which had turned into texting quite frequently, which had turned into Skyping, which had eventually gotten to the point where Deryn had been able to extort a visit out of Jaspert. It had taken quite a lot of wheedling and pleading, but he’d eventually given in. They didn’t exactly have the money to travel to Austria (again) so it had been worked out that Alek would come to Glasgow and stay with them for a week or so.

And apparently Alek had to convince his uncle, a man called Volger (what kind of a name was that?) which resulted in an extremely awkward conversation between herself, Jaspert, Volder, and Alek in which she and Alek pretended not to exist and Jaspert and Volger exchanged thinly veiled threats.

Deryn wasn’t quite sure who had won, exactly, but given that Volger had agreed to the trip, she figured it had at least been a draw. Alek was due to arrive that night, so Deryn had spent the afternoon in a panicked state, trying to clean everything in sight while Jaspert looked on in bewildered amusement.

She’d tried to convince him to let her pick him up at the airport, but Alek had insisted that he was more than capable of handling the metro system himself, never mind that Jaspert, the most directionally savvy person she knew, had gotten lost on it for an hour and called her at two in the morning. Never mind that he’d been sodding drunk off his arse at the time.

Deryn checked the time. It was around 7:30, which meant that Alek’s flight would be landing soon. Good. That was good. It was getting dark out, and Glasgow was difficult enough to find one’s way around in when it was broad daylight.

At that moment, her phone buzzed to indicate a text. She picked it up and glanced at the screen, which read Plane just landed. Be there soon. She sent back a winky face and picked up her book, settling in for the wait.

Half an hour later, she was beginning to get a little worried. Alek hadn’t arrived yet, nor had she heard from him. Deryn sighed. “Jaspert!” she shouted.

Her brother’s head appeared at the top of the stairs. “What?” he replied, sounding more than a little annoyed. “I was right in the middle of something.”

“Alek landed half an hour ago and said he was on his way and I haven’t heard from him,” she said, then stuck her tongue out. “And nothing’s more important than your adorable baby sister.”

Jaspert rolled his eyes. “Why I put up with you…” he muttered. “And I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about. He’ll turn up.” With that he walked back up the stairs.

Deryn stared after him, then looked back down at her phone. Well, she couldn’t do anything about this until she heard from Alek. She sighed and returned to her book, brow furrowed in concentration.

Another 20 minutes passed, full of sighs, worry, and another 30 pages of The Count of Monte Cristo, before she heard from Alek. Her phone beeped insistently at her a few times before she snatched it off the coffee table and hit the Accept button, pressing it to her ear.

“Hello?” she said.

A rush of static came down the other end of the line. “Oh, thank god,” said Alek’s familiar voice. “I worried you wouldn’t pick up.”

“What’s the matter? Where are you?” she demanded.

“Well,” Alek said, stretching the word out to 5 times its normal length. “About that. I don’t exactly know.”

Deryn sighed. “You got lost, didn’t you? I told you I could pick you up but no, that would be too easy. Are you on the metro?”

“Yes, but I think I got on the wrong one and now I don’t know where I am and,” he lowered his voice to a hissing whisper. “There are some very sketchy looking people on this train and I’m getting a little nervous.”

“All right,” Deryn said, already with her boots and coat halfway on. “You need to, first of all, tell me what the next stop is and get off there, got it?”

“Got it,” Alek replied. “It’s called Shields Road.” She could hear brakes squealing in the background. “I’m getting off right now.”

“Good,” Deryn said. She grabbed her hat from out of the closet and scribbled a note to Jaspert, explaining where she’d gone. “Now, you’re going to need to hang tight until I get there   
to pick you up. You might run into some homeless people who sleep in the station, but don’t worry, you should be fine unless you run into old Mr. Hobbes.” She laughed. “Barking mad, that one.”

“Not really helping, Deryn.”

“Sorry. Anyway, just find a quiet place to wait for me. I shouldn’t be more than ten or twenty minutes. Good?” Deryn closed and locked the door behind her and stepped out onto the   
street.

“Good,” Alek repeated. “See you then?”

“Yeah, and try not to get into any more trouble. “Alek laughed, and Deryn found herself grinning. “Bye,” she said, and hung up.

Alek supposed he should have seen this one coming. He knew he was hopeless with direction, why had he insisted he didn’t need a ride?

And now he was stuck in a creepy old metro station, all alone, at night. It almost served him right.

Alek made his way along the platform, looking for a place to sit down. Nowhere too out in the open, though. He didn’t want to get mugged out here. Alek hoped beyond a hope that   
Deryn would be there soon.

He sat down on a sturdy looking wooden bench and pulled out a book. If he was going to wait, he might as well read.

A few minutes later, someone sat down next to him. Alek was certain he stopped breathing. Please don’t let it me a mass murderer, he thought, I’m too young to die. The person cleared their throat, and he cracked open one eye. Sitting beside him was a wrinkled, dirty old man with a matted beard wringing his hands and muttering under his breath.

“Um, hello?” Alek said. The old man stopped muttering and looked at him with slightly crazed looking eyes. “Who are you?” he asked.

The man grinned a toothless grin. “My name is Hobbes,” he said.

Oh, hell. Wasn’t this the crazy one Deryn had warned him about? Alek found himself wishing he was very, very far from here. He was practically helpless until Deryn showed up. He couldn’t leave, and the old man looked fairly sturdy. Alek couldn’t exactly attack him.

“Hello, Hobbes,” Alek said carefully. “How are you feeling this evening?” It certainly wouldn’t do to upset him.

“Good, good.” Hobbes scrutinized him with a close eye. “But young man, you haven’t told me who you are or what you’re doing here at such a late time of night.”

“W-well,” he stammered. “I don’t really think I should be telling you about that. Since we don’t actually know each other. “At all.” Alek shifted a few inches away from him and offered up an awkward grin.

Before Hobbes could say anything else, someone strode through the entrance, pushing the rotating metal door. Alek risked a backwards glance and thank god, it was Deryn.  
“Alek!” she called. “Glad I finally found you, you barking ninny.” She glanced at the other man. “Mr. HObbes,” she said. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

Alek leapt to his feet and hurried towards her, pulling his suitcase along with him. “Thanks for getting me,” he said.

The corner of her mouth tugged upwards into a half smile. “As if I’d leave you here all alone,” Deryn teased. She held out her arms. “It’s good to see you.”

Alek pulled her in for a hug. After a moment, he let go and held her at arms length. “You’re looking well,” he commented.

“Thanks?” she squeaked, and grabbed the handle of his suitcase. Deryn set off, his bag in tow, and called over her shoulder, “Let’s go! Bye, Mr. Hobbes.”

Alek shook his head and followed her. It was going to be an interesting week indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A wild plot bunny attacked me. That is all I have to say. However, if you do want to see me geek out about Leviathan more, you should visit me on tumblr at emperorsarevainanduselessthings.tumblr.com!


End file.
